1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems and methods, and more particularly, to a voltage regulator which can provide reliable voltage regulation for high current applications.
2. State of the Art
Communication systems which employ wireless transceivers are well known. However, as is the case with most electronic technologies today, there is an ever increasing demand to improve information transmission rates and range (that is, power output), while at the same time, reducing the influence of noise and improving the quality of transmission. In addition, there is always increasing demand to broaden the applicability of wireless communications to technologies still dependent on wired or fiber linked communication, such as mainframe-to-mainframe communications where high data rate and high power requirements have precluded the use of conventional wireless communications. To satisfy these competing concerns, a compromise is often reached whereby some sacrifice in transmission rate is accepted to enhance the integrity of the data transmitted. In addition, some sacrifice in transmission range is accepted to reduce the transceiver's circuit complexity and cost.
One feature of conventional communication systems which affects transmission power is the voltage regulator used to supply operating voltages to transmitter and receiver portion of the system. Although a wide variety of voltage regulators are known for information transmission/reception, the availability of voltage regulators which can satisfy the current requirements of a high power, long range transmission system is somewhat limited. To the extent that suitable voltage regulators exist, they tend to be unstable, and exhibit an undesirable noise performance characteristic. Efforts to improve the stability of such voltage regulators results in relatively complex circuit configurations which are impractical from size and cost efficiency standpoints.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for providing a regulated DC output voltage using a cost effective, straightforward approach that can satisfy the power requirements of high power (e.g., 0.5 to 2 watts (W), or higher), high transmission rate systems (e.g., having operating frequencies on the order of 18-40 gigahertz (GHz) spectrums or wider, and actual transmission rates on the order of 100 to 125 megabits per second (125 Mb/s) or higher).